Former Collegiate Wrestling
champion Matt Furey teaches how to use some simple principles from tai
chi to make your wrestling more efficient, or rather, how to avoid
head-on power vs. power contests but without stalling. Anyone with an
aikido or hapkido background will find the material familiar, if not
obvious, but the wrestling moves will be informative. Tapes 1-3 are for
wrestlers. Tapes 4-5 are for the guys who already know the "martial
arts" material and provide an overview of the conceptual world of
the high school wrestler. There is a lot of material, covered at a quick
pace. It is not the place to learn how to shoot a double, for example,
but you will have a good general view of what to expect from a wrestler
when you square off with one. Matt is assisted on tapes 1-3 by Bob
Herrera, a former wrestler, and on tapes 4 and 5 by Brian Johnston, a
striker/judoka who fought in several UFCs. Everyone speaks English quite
well.

Matt is a good communicator. He
knows how to motivate young wrestlers. Some of this may look stupid he
says, but what would you rather do, worry about looking stupid or win
matches, he rhetorically asks? The visuals and audio are clear. There
are no slow motion replays. Matt respects our intelligence too much for
that (stretching out a ten minute video into an hour video by replaying
each technique six times--like we wouldn't get it the first or second or
third time, and don't have a rewind button). In any case, quantity is
not the same as quality. Three good techniques in ten minutes is better
than ten weak techniques in 60 minutes, and replaying the weak crappy
techniques six times don't somehow make them any better. Brevity is a
virtue. More is not always better. In the same vein, Matt has refrained
from inflicting any hard metal thrasher rock music on us. To his credit,
he dispenses with the tunes altogether.

Tape 1Take Control of
Every Tie-Up

Matt teaches how not merely to get
out of tie-ups but also, using tai chi principles, how to put yourself
in a more offensive position as a result. For non-wrestlers, this will
serve as an introduction to tie-ups. It's a simple subject, since there
aren't many body parts that can legally be used as handles. Different
tie-ups tend to lead to different take-downs and to get to the body
itself requires that you get past the arms. For this, Matt recommends
drilling hands separately--you have to work on things that don't score
points, he says, quoting from his coach Dan Gable. He makes the
significant point that wrestlers have only one direction, which is
forward. They can't back up--that's stalling. But they can, and Matt
says should, use angles to achieve deceptive entries. He demonstrates
several ways, drawing on his tai chi training.

Tape 2Score Easy
Take Downs with Secret Set Ups

Set-ups are what wrestlers use
either to get good tie-ups or to off balance the opponent so that he
will be easier to take down. The basic set-ups wrestlers use are the
head snap, the fake head snap, the shoulder pop, and the thigh slap. The
purpose is to get your opponent to move where you want him to be, either
by physically putting him there, or making him do it himself to avoid
what he thinks may be a take down attempt, or to make him attempt to
capitalize on what he thinks is an opening in your defense.

Most
wrestlers' set-ups don't work, Matt says, for several reasons, the most
common being that the wrestling "stylist" isn't doing them
well enough (tautologically true, to be sure). You aren't doing the
set-up well enough, for example, if your opponent can predict where you
are going, either because you are obviously going where you are, or
because your deceptive movement isn't deceiving him. (This kind of logic
wouldn't score you many points in a term paper, but it is just what is
needed in an art that emphasizes action rather than talk. Rather than
reciting parables about waterfalls and empty cups, the wrestling coach
will say something like "what you are doing isn't working, so
either do it better (like this....), or do something else (such as
this....)".

Like any good coach, Matt has suggestions. Matt
recommends using what he calls "jings" to scatter the
opponent's chi (energy). This is the same chi in tai
chi, and pronounced ki in Korean and Japanese, the same ki
in hapkido and aikido. （It is written in all three
languages with the character 気） Matt explains that the best
wrestlers already do this, they just don't describe it using vocabulary
from East Asian languages.

Matt doesn't think it's a good idea
to attempt the same obvious set-up over and over again, hoping that
eventually it will work. He recommends a variety of alternatives, but
they are really variants of the same concept, which is to be deceptive.
Variety in attack and defense is the best way to defeat an opponent, he
says, paraphrasing Bruce Lee. Variety is one of the things that make
deception deceptive, as long as your opponent doesn't know which of the
various possibilities will be the actual one. (In the best case
scenario, he doesn't even know how many possibilities there are.) You
can't be deceptive with only one possible move (even if your opponent
doesn't know for sure when you're going to do it). Uncertainty is
not deception. He goes on to illustrate how Lee's five methods of
attack can be applied in wrestling.

Tape 3Crank Your
Opponent Over and Pin Him

This is the least useful tape of
the set for non wrestlers. Being cranked over is not something to worry
about and unless there is a three second time limit, escaping the pin
will not be difficult, or for that matter, necessary (see comments on
tape 5 below). You can lose the match in judo and wrestling by being
pinned, but you merely waste time by being pinned in jiu-jitsu and your
opponent is stalling by keeping you there (in any case, he will
only attempt it if he is already ahead on points).

Tape 4How Wrestlers Take
a Fight to the Ground

For someone who simply wants to see
a wrestler's game, tape 4 is the one to own. Matt demonstrates a variety
of basic typical wrestling moves, for example: how to take someone down
when they push you (the most common street situation, Matt thinks, and
he may be right), what to do if an opponent sprawls, how to escape from
a Guillotine, how to execute a duck-under, how to counter a Fireman's
Carry, several set-ups if someone grabs your shirt (the second most
common street situation), how to do lateral drops, and reverse hip
tosses, how to counter punches and kicks, and a lot more, including the
essential skill of lowering your level (not the same as bending over!)
He does not teach in detail how to shoot a double or execute any of the
moves for that matter. There are many good wrestling instructionals
available for that, Carl Adams five tape set, for example. Matt's tape
is intended as an introduction for non-wrestlers.

Tape 5How Wrestlers
Control a Fight on the Ground

There is a plethora of material on
this tape too. It may be useful for strikers. Little will be useful for
jiu-jitsu stylists or other grapplers who don't have a complex about not
being on their backs. Anyone comfortable with rolling and being on his
back will not have tremendous difficulties escaping these ground
controlling techniques. Of course, it has to be remembered that a
wrestler wins by keeping his opponent's shoulders on the mat for three
seconds. It may not be easy to escape in three seconds. "You have
to know what game you're playing", Dan Inosanto says. With that in
mind, be aware that some of the moves that are effective and devastating
in wrestling will be suicide in jiu-jitsu, sambo, or shooto. Indeed,
wrestlers often win mixed martial arts fights. This may be as much
because of their exceptional personal abilities as the effectiveness of
what they are doing on the ground. Notwithstanding, it cannot be
gainsaid that the technique of shooting doubles has been perfected to
its highest form in the martial art of wrestling. Matt's tapes are not
necessarily the best place to learn that technique, but then, that
wasn't Matt's purpose. His tapes do a good job of what they set out to
do.

(c) 2000, Roberto Pedreira. All rights reserved.

Matt Furey's Five tape Martial Art of
Wrestling tapes are entertaining and reasonably informative (not enough to learn
how to wrestle, but not a bad introduction) and his book is also readable. Matt
is not a huge Gracie fan but he knows good grappling when he sees it.